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IU TO HONOR FIVE PEOPLE WITH DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI SERVICE AWARDS
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University will honor five persons with its Distinguished Alumni Service Award at a recognition luncheon Sunday (June 20) in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union building.
The recipients are Mehmet Kutsi Begdes, of Istanbul, Turkey; Willard Z. Carr Jr. of Los Angeles, Calif.; Polly Jontz Lennon of Indianapolis; Bernard C. Watson of Elkins Park, Pa.; and Jack R. Wentworth of Bloomington.
The five were chosen for services and achievements in their fields of endeavor and significant contributions to community, state or nation.
Mehmet Kutsi Begdes
Begdes was the first person to receive a doctorate in economics from IU. The son of a prominent family in Turkey, Begdes came to the United States in the late 1930s to pursue graduate study, initially at another institution. As a result of his work in a language instruction institute, he became acquainted with IU, where he later transferred. In addition to earning a doctorate in economics in 1944, Begdes received a master's degree in the same discipline in 1940 from IU. While pursuing his advanced education at IU, he served as an assistant in the Government (now Political Science) and Economics departments and taught as an instructor in economics.
Upon returning to Turkey in 1945, Begdes worked briefly for the Ministry of Finance as assistant director of treasury. He joined the newly formed banking concern Yapi Ve Kredi Bankasi and was general secretary, commercial director and economic advisor to the chairman between 1945 and 1978. He also rose to the posts of chairman and chief executive officer of the bank's subsidiaries, serving in those positions until 1978. He was a travel agent representative for American Express and European agencies from 1949 to 1988.
As a representative of McDonnell Douglas from 1966 to 1985, Begdes arranged for the sale of aircraft to Turkish airlines and the Turkish Air Force. From 1972 to 1992, he was a consultant and representative of General Electric's Commercial and Military Aircraft Engine Group. Begdes today is a consultant in the fields of international finance, aviation, banking and import/exports.
Begdes also has remained very involved with IU, including his service as a founding member of the university's International Council, the IU International Business Forum and the IU President's Advisory Committee. He also has a bachelor's degree from Robert College, for which he serves as chairman of the fund-raising committee and as a member of the Robert College of Istanbul Corp.
Willard Z. Carr Jr.
A native of Richmond, Ind., Carr in 1950 earned a law degree from the IU School of Law-Bloomington, where he was an editor of the Indiana Law Journal. From 1951 to 1952, he served as a captain in the Judge Advocate General's Department of the U.S. Air Force. Carr has been with the Los Angeles law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher since 1951. He remains of counsel with the firm since his retirement in 1994. He was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963. His area of specialization is the practice of labor relations and employment law.
In addition to a demanding career with one of the nation's largest law firms, Carr has devoted an extraordinary amount of time to public service. He has served as chairman of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Red Cross, chairman of the Los Angeles Law and Justice Commission, and chairman of the Los Angeles United Way. He has been involved with the California State Parks Foundation, the Los Angeles Zoo Association, the Los Angeles Council of Boy Scouts and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
He is a member of the IU President's Circle, the IU Alumni Association, and Woodburn Guild. In 1991, the IU Law School honored him with its highest distinction, the Academy of Law Alumni Fellows. He serves as a member of the IU Law School Board of Visitors and as an active volunteer for the Law School Admissions Office. In 1992, he and his wife Margaret made a gift to fund an endowed professorship. In addition to his IU law degree, he also has a bachelor of science degree from Purdue University.
Polly Jontz Lennon
A 1949 IU journalism and political science graduate, Lennon is president emerita of Conner Prairie, an accredited open-air living history museum located in Fishers, Ind., operated by an Earlham Museum, where she served as a vice president. Over a 14-year period, she took the small, relatively unknown organization and turned it into one of the top historic sites in the country.
After a brief journalism career with the Indianapolis News, Lennon began her museum career at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis, where she was public relations and development director. In 1982, Lennon moved to Conner Prairie and transformed it into a major Indiana attraction with a national reputation. Annual attendance figures tripled under Lennon's leadership, and membership quadrupled. Its collection of artifacts increased in size from 12,000 to 17,000.
Lennon created the Pioneer Adventure Area, a popular hands-on center for children and adults that is rare within the history museum field. This was followed by the restoration of the Golden Eagle Inn and the development of the natural history education center. She raised $10.5 million to build the 65,000-square-foot museum center and then developed an amphitheater, which serves as the venue for "Symphony on the Prairie," featuring the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Listed in Who's Who in America, Lennon is the recipient of several honors, including the Hoosier Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Distinguished Service Award from the Midwest Museums Conference, the Sagamore of the Wabash, and the IU College of Arts and Sciences Graduate School Distinguished Alumni Award. She is a member of the Indiana Academy. Her involvement at IU at IU has included her serving as a lecturer in the IUPUI Division of Continuing Studies.
Bernard C. Watson
A native of Gary, Ind., Watson has enjoyed a distinguished career in the field of education. Beginning as a junior high school teacher in his hometown, he has risen to the position of Presidential Scholar at Temple University. Watson has been appointed by four U.S. presidents to serve on various boards and agencies dealing with education and urban affairs.
After receiving a bachelor of science degree in history and political science from IU in 1951, he served in the U.S. Air Force between 1951 and 1954. He went on to earn advanced degrees from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. He also attended the Advanced Administrative Institute at Harvard University.
His career in education began as a research assistant at the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children at the University of Illinois, which was followed by 10 years at Gary Roosevelt Junior/Senior High School, initially as a teacher and then as an assistant principal and principal. Between 1967 and 1970, he held administrative posts in the Philadelphia School District. He joined the Temple University faculty in 1970 as professor and chairman of the Department of Urban Education. He also served as Temple's vice president for academic administration from 1976 to 1981.
Through his work with the William Penn Foundation from 1981 to 1993, several buildings and areas in the Philadelphia area were restored to provide opportunities for the arts. In 1994, he returned to Temple as Presidential Scholar and also became chairman of the board of the Healthcare Management Alternatives Foundation in Philadelphia.
Watson has received numerous national and state awards, including the Whitney M. Young Jr. Medallion, presented by the National Urban League, and the Brotherhood Award, given by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He has been awarded 21 honorary degrees.
Jack R. Wentworth
Almost all of Wentworth's career has been spent with IU's Kelley School of Business, where he is dean emeritus and the Arthur M. Weimer Professor Emeritus of business administration. His most visible contribution came during his decade-long deanship, when the school's rise to national prominence included a No. 2 ranking for its undergraduate program and a No. 8 ranking for its MBA program. Private support for the school rose to more than $3 million.
Wentworth received a bachelor of science degree in business from IU in 1950. After serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, he received an MBA degree and a doctorate in business from IU in 1954 and 1959. Joining the faculty as a lecturer in 1956, Wentworth became an assistant professor in 1959 and a full professor in 1968. He was named dean of the School of Business in 1984, a post he held until 1993.
During his career, Wentworth also was involved in other university, civic and public service activities. Most noteworthy was his service as IU's faculty representative to the Big 10 Athletic Conference and the National Collegiate Athletic Association between 1978 and 1985. In 1980-81, he was the Big Ten's chairman. In 1982, he was a member of the Select Committee on Athletic Problems and Concerns in Higher Education. Other service to IU includes his chairing the Kelley School of Business Foundation for nine years, designing the Kelley School's Faculty Fellowship Program, and serving on one of IU President Myles Brand's university-level task forces under the Strategic Directions Initiatives. He also has served as chairman of the Graduate Management Admissions Council.
He currently serves on the board of directors of the Community Foundation for the city of Bloomington and Monroe County, and on the Finance Committee for the First United Methodist Church in Bloomington.
(George Vlahakis, Office of Communications and Marketing, 812-855-0846, gvlahaki@indiana.edu)